


The first time Koujaku realised that his feelings for Noiz went quite a bit deeper than just "I like you, please go out with me"

by DragonReine



Series: A Series of Firsts [3]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Canon - Anime, M/M, Post-Anime, kounoi, noijaku, noikou - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-09
Updated: 2014-11-09
Packaged: 2018-02-24 16:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2587748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonReine/pseuds/DragonReine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Koujaku shows his worry-wart side, Mujina makes a brief (voice-only) appearance, and Noiz realises that he <em>might</em> have miscalculated when he didn't tell Koujaku what his plans were.</p><p>Set after the events of the anime and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2541314">Part 2 of A Series of Firsts</a></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <br/>
    <i>[The number you have dialled is not in service.]</i>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Koujaku hung up again and stared at his Coil. Ten attempts. Ten times he had heard the same cheerful recorded message saying that the number was invalid. His heart was thudding in his chest in a painful, very-not-good way.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>    <i>Noiz, where are you?</i><br/></p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	The first time Koujaku realised that his feelings for Noiz went quite a bit deeper than just "I like you, please go out with me"

**Author's Note:**

> Self-beta'ed, all mistakes are my own.
> 
> This isn't a standalone fic; you'll need to [read the earlier parts of the series](http://archiveofourown.org/series/169361) to understand the progression of this fic.
> 
> There's quite a bit of headcanon stuff for this part of the story, check the end notes.

About three hours after he had left the Seragaki residence, Koujaku realised that Noiz had not given him any contact details. Not even a Coil number.

It was a disconcerting realisation to make, especially since Koujaku didn't even know where Noiz lived, or where he liked to hang out, so there was no way for him to find Noiz if he wanted to. It only highlighted the fact that, for all that he and Noiz had spilled their own respective darkest secrets to each other, they were still strangers.

Or at least, Noiz was a stranger to Koujaku; he didn't know how many details of his life the brat had collected, but he still remembered how Noiz had blandly made his Allmate recite details about Mink, including Mink's ambidexterity. Those were the kind of details that can only come from observation, instead of just hacking into existing records.

Koujaku stared at the knitted beanie tumbling around in his dryer, and wondered if he should be concerned.

He'd assumed that he and Noiz had agreed to… _date_  each other, and weren't people supposed to exchange numbers for that sort of thing? Koujaku had never had to do that before; it just wasn't good sense to hand out his personal number to his fans, and the women he had actually slept with were strictly one-night stands, sex with no strings attached. He had been very careful to not let any of the lovely women chasing after him get too close, when he knew that he was unlikely to actually care for them the way they wanted to be (and should be) cared for.

The dryer beeped, interrupting his musings, and Koujaku took the cap out of the machine.

It was a bit of a surprise to find the beanie on the floor of Aoba's room, but Koujaku was more surprised at himself for picking it up and taking it home with him. He wasn't even sure of his own motivations for doing so. Did he expect Noiz to find him and take it back from him?

...well, it wasn't going to happen. It was a spectacularly ugly and ridiculous beanie, and Koujaku decided that when Noiz showed up at his doorstep, he'd probably burn the damn thing right in front of him.

* * *

Two days later, Noiz was still nowhere to be seen or heard from, and a seed of worry started growing in Koujaku's mind.

Five days since he had last seen Noiz. The worry was starting to interrupt his concentration at work. Koujaku decided to take a little hiatus from work when one of his regular clients complained that he seemed more interested in whatever was going on in his head than what he was doing with her hair. 

Five days turned into a week; still no sign of Noiz. Koujaku glared at the cap on his bedside table and viciously thinks that when he next sees Noiz again, he was going to strangle the brat first.

It was on the tenth day after he and Noiz had parted ways at Aoba's home that Koujaku finally gave up and asked Aoba for Noiz's Coil number. Aoba had given it to him without question—although not without a concerned stare and a raised eyebrow, which Koujaku was quick to reassure with a smile and a laugh.

He didn't tell Aoba about what happened between him and Noiz. It felt too new, still, and he wasn't even sure  _how_  he should break the news to his best friend.  _Sorry Aoba, I'll tell you about it eventually, but not today._

* * *

_[The number you have dialled is not in service.]_

Koujaku hung up again and stared at his Coil. Ten attempts. Ten times he had heard the same cheerful recorded message saying that the number was invalid. His heart was thudding in his chest in a painful, very-not-good way.

_Noiz, where are you?_

* * *

"He's _gone?_ "

There was an annoyed hiss on the other side of the call. "Wow, shout a little louder, can you?"

Koujaku sucked in a breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm down the irrational anger he was feeling. "Sorry, Mujina. You just caught me by surprise, is all."

Mujina grunted in response. "Whatever. Don't do that again. It's too fucking early for me to deal with that kind of noise."

"...it's nine PM."

"Like I said, too fucking early."

The grumpy response made Koujaku smile, just a little. "You really shouldn’t keep such odd hours; it’s bad for your health."

"Save me the lecture. I haven’t dropped dead yet, so you’re wrong anyway." There was the sound of an office chair being rolled out, and Koujaku heard the beeping of a computer being turned on. "But anyway, yeah, Noiz told me he’s quitting Rhyme and Ruff Rabbit shortly after that Oval Tower incident. Haven’t seen him since. Pretty sure he’s no longer on Midorijima, in fact."

Koujaku was glad he was sitting on his bed; his legs felt abruptly numb, and he was sure he would have fallen on his ass if he was standing.

_Noiz has left Midorijima?_

"Do you know where he went? Is there some way I can contact him?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "...That depends, Koujaku," Mujina said, voice heavily suspicious. "Why are you even looking for Noiz? Last I heard from my kids, you and he were constantly at each other’s throats."

Koujaku laughed at that, feeling rueful. "Um, yeah, we were, but we've settled our differences."

"Huh...Is that so?"

"Please, Mujina, the last thing I want to do is hurt him. He’s a...I consider him a friend of mine. It’s been over two weeks since I've last heard from him, and I...I'm worried about him."

There was an even longer moment of silence, and Koujaku had to clench his hands to stop the nervous shaking.

Eventually, Mujina made a quiet harrumph. "A friend, huh? Weird, but I've seen weirder stuff happen. Very well. I’ll help you find out where he is. Actually, let me do that now, since you woke me up already and everything."

Koujaku let out a sigh of relief. "I would appreciate it."

"Don’t hurry to thank me just yet," Mujina said curtly. "There isn't much to tell about him off the top of my head, to be honest. I mean, we're team-mates and we started Ruff Rabbit together, but that's pretty much all that we are, y'know? Noiz has always been a standoffish kinda guy, and frankly I don’t give a shit about what he does in his personal time as long as he does well in Rhyme and he can gather the right info for our group to keep the profit coming in." There was the clatter of fingers typing rapidly on a mechanical keyboard, and more beeping. "He’d been living in this super private penthouse in the richer quarter of the Old Residents’ District, really discreet and secure place, and the landlord’s pretty tight-lipped on the info of his tenants. Not that it stops someone like me from finding out what I need to know; their network security is good but not _that_ good...huh."

“Huh?” Koujaku sat up straighter. “What’s up with that surprised tone?”

“The lease is still active; in fact, it’s been renewed for another year. Odd. It’s as if he’s planning to return or something.” More typing sounds. “Well, you’re in luck. Kind of. His Allmate’s been busy checking out flight schedules, based on the records left behind on the building’s wireless network. All of them are outbound flights to Germany. Although I can’t tell you which part of Germany he’s gone to—Noiz must have used a separate, more private network to make his travel arrangements.” Mujina sighed. “Can’t do much more than that, I’m afraid, short of actually breaking into his home, and I'd rather not do that, it's not part of my skill-set. I can’t even help you track down his exact flight, since I don’t have his legal name.”

Koujaku blinked at that. “What?”

“...you do know that ‘Noiz’ isn’t his real name, right?”

“Ah...I never really thought about that. He was always Noiz to me.”

Mujina scoffed. “ _Ribsters._ Fucking idiots, all of you. This is what happens when you use your fists more often than you use your brains, but whatever, not gonna criticise your path in life. Noiz’s history before he showed up on Midorijima is a mystery to even me, and I bet it was Noiz’s own doing. I looked into his past just for kicks once, and anything related to his pre-Midorijima days has been buried under a lot of junk aliases; it's too much of a pain to sort out the truth from the rubbish. Kid’s pretty scary, if you think about it. He can be anyone he wanted to be, he’s _that_ brilliant.”

“He is,” Koujaku murmured, smiling and remembering how Noiz managed to control an entire pack of Doggie attack bots, back in Platinum Jail. “He’s pretty damn amazing.”

There was an amused hum, and Koujaku remembered—far too late—that he was still on a call, and Mujina could hear him. “Sounds like you have a soft spot for that kid, Koujaku. Is there something I should know?”

“None of your damn business,” Koujaku retorted with a false cheeriness, and Mujina laughed. “But thanks for your help, Mujina. What do I owe you?”

“Eh, consider this a freebie. It’s not even very useful info, and I'm not gonna charge you for shit service. I have a reputation to maintain.” There was a brief pause. “Noiz always seemed like a lonely guy, y’know? It’s good to hear that someone like you is looking out for him, and you’re actually very nice, for a violent gangster.”

“And you’re very generous, for a greedy hacker,” Koujaku said. “Let me treat you to drinks, at least, if you ever decide to crawl out of your cave and step into the sunlight for once.”

“Eh...I'll pass on hanging out with you. I'm far too allergic to stupid people,” Mujina drawled snidely, making Koujaku growl in annoyance. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I've got some important, _paying_ clients to talk to. See ya.” The call cut off with a beep.

Koujaku glared at his Coil, mentally cursing the info-broker that hung up on him. Typical Mujina. Charmingly rude as ever.

But at least Koujaku found out where Noiz might have disappeared to.

“Germany, huh,” he murmured, falling sideways onto his bed and rolling over to stare up at the ceiling. Was that Noiz’s home country? He knew Noiz was foreign, but he’d never really given it much thought before.

But why would Noiz just leave all of a sudden? It’s a pretty drastic thing, to just up and vanish like that. Did Noiz get in trouble? If he was in trouble, why couldn’t he tell Koujaku? Did Noiz not trust him enough to seek help?

And why was Koujaku so worked up over this anyway? He'd only known Noiz for, what, a few days? Yet he felt almost as frantic as the times when Aoba went missing, or got into trouble. Was it even a healthy thing to be this obsessed over Noiz's well-being so soon?

...ugh, what a mess. There were too many questions swirling in his head, and he could feel his temples start to pound.

Koujaku let out a weary sigh and closed his eyes, feeling the weight of his anger and worry like a physical thing.

Ah, he would have to think about it in the morning, after he had slept off the incipient headache.

The next thing he knew, Koujaku was rudely awakened by the shrill sound of his Coil ringing.

Koujaku blinked into the darkness of his apartment, before dragging his Coil over from where it rested beside his pillow and bringing up the display. 

_[Incoming Call: Unknown Number]_

Koujaku stared for a moment, blearily wondering if he should pick up the call or disconnect it. The digital clock blinking at him on the Coil's display told him it was just a little before midnight, and Koujaku was really, really sleepy. 

_Who on earth would call me this late in the night?_

Frowning, Koujaku decided to let the call through. It might be an emergency, for all he knew, although he didn't know anyone who would have such an obviously foreign string of numbers... "Hello?"

"Old man."

Those two words, spoken in a  _very familiar_  soft-spoken, deep voice, did an excellent job of chasing whatever lingering sleepiness he felt.

" _Noiz?_ "

"Who else?"

Koujaku sucked in a breath. Noiz spoke like he always did; slow, flat, but tinged with just a hint of annoyance. 

In other words, he sounded perfectly fine.

Koujaku let out his breath, and the weight that he had been carrying with him rushed out with it.  _He's fine, he's all right. That's good. What a relief._

"...oi, old man, did you fall asleep on me or something?"

The rude verbal jab poked at Koujaku's temper, and suddenly all the worry, all the anger, and all the hurt he felt over the past couple of weeks just came crashing back like a tidal wave. 

" _Why you little..._ where the fuck are you?" he yelled into the Coil. "Do you have  _any_  idea what you put me through? You just  _disappeared_  like that and you never bothered to tell me where you went, and I couldn't even find you, I thought you might have gotten in trouble or something, and then I find out that you  _left Midorijima_ , you little shit, and you didn't tell me? I was worried about you, damn it, and you just... _argh!_ " Koujaku clutched tightly at his Coil, feeling so very tempted to throw it at the wall. "Give me one very good reason why I shouldn't hang up on you right now."

Noiz was completely silent; so long, in fact, that Koujaku had to look at the display again to make sure that the call had not cut off.

"...you were worried about me?" Noiz asked. 

Koujaku stared at the Coil, wishing that there was a video feed; trying to gauge Noiz's mood without seeing his face was a lot more difficult than if he had spoken with Noiz face-to-face. Koujaku could have sworn that Noiz sounded smug _._ "What kind of question is that? Of course I'm worried about you, you damn brat. Who knows what kind of insane, reckless thing you've been up to?"

" _Reckless?_ You're one to talk, or did you forget about the time in Platinum Jail when you just charged at a bunch of guys shooting bullets at you? Didn't realise your dementia was that bad."

"That's _different,_ " Koujaku snarled. "And quit it with the old age jokes."

"But you  _are_  a wrinkly, disgusting old man."

"You didn't find me so disgusting when you put your tongue in my mouth before, you brat!"

The retort was out before he even thought of censoring it, and the moment his brain caught up with what his mouth just said, he felt the urge to bite his tongue and cut the call off.

Noiz, the bastard, only laughed at him, and that...managed to distract him from his anger completely, actually. It was a surprisingly nice laugh, light and breathy, and Noiz ended it with a soft, sighing sound, like he was unused to laughing. It was...cute. Very cute. 

Koujaku found that he regretted not recording that laugh, because he wanted to hear it again and again. 

...yes, he was definitely obsessed. Koujaku wondered what sort of crazy thing he had managed to walk into, getting involved with Noiz like this. He'd never felt so  _invested_  in making another person aside from Aoba laugh before, and yet right now he was already imagining if he could find Noiz's ticklish spots, just to listen to him laugh.

Or better yet, make Noiz happy enough to laugh with joy, 

Evidently the moment of silence while Koujaku came to that unsettling conclusion came off as 'angry silence' to Noiz. He heard the creak of leather (it sounded like Noiz was shifting in a chair) before Noiz sighed again, this time a lot more quietly. 

"I'm sorry," Noiz murmured. "I didn't mean to make you angry. I didn't think that you cared that much."

Koujaku blinked at the contrite tone, threaded with uncertainty. It made Noiz sound very small and scared. He pinched the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb, feeling weirdly guilty about making Noiz sound like that, and let out his own sigh. 

"It's fine. At least I know you're all right now, hm?" 

"Still. I was...thoughtless. I didn't think to let you know where I went, until I saw that someone tried to hack into my home network in Midorijima, and they left a message telling me to call you." 

Koujaku stared at the Coil, and then mentally groaned with annoyance.  _Goddamn Mujina, the sneaky bastard. I bet he planned for this to happen._

"Well, at least you've called me. Where are you, anyway?"

"Germany," Noiz replied. "Munich, to be exact."

Koujaku had expected that answer, but hearing it from Noiz's mouth made him realise that the idea of Noiz being on an entirely different continent had not quite sunk in yet, until just then. "Huh. That's very far away. What's there to do in Munich?"

"My parents' company has their headquarters there, mostly. I'm now working for them."

Koujaku paused for a moment as that information sank in, his grip on his Coil tightening until it threatened to break. "...your parents. As in, the very same parents who locked you in a room as a child?"

"Koujaku,  _calm down_. I can hear you growling."

Koujaku snarled, but he forced himself to push the anger down and away, and waited for his breathing to become slow and even before continuing. "Is that a good idea? After the shit they've done to you?"

"I haven't forgiven them," Noiz said, his tone flat and cold. "I did go back to mend bridges, since I did run away from home, and we're being civil to each other now. But it doesn't mean that I care for them all that much. This is a temporary thing, and once I can go back to Midorijima I can minimise contact with them again." 

It was a very ruthless kind of answer, and frankly from anyone else Koujaku might have been a bit concerned about such heartlessness. But he knew about Noiz's past and had started to care for him a lot more than is appropriate, which made him biased towards Noiz. 

"Mmm. Well, as long as you don't allow them to mistreat you again."

"I won't," Noiz said. "I promise you, I'm not going to put myself through that again. Not when I know that it will hurt you too."

Koujaku blinked at the simple, earnest declaration, and grimaced, bringing a hand up to rub at his abruptly reddening face. "Ah. That's...good. That's a good thing."

It's so  _absurd_ , that Noiz can say things like that and mean them completely seriously. But the truly absurd part was how it made Koujaku's heart warm with joy and pride to hear Noiz declare that he didn't want to hurt Koujaku. 

It wasn't quite love, not exactly. But it was well on its way to being love. Koujaku was far too aware of his own emotions to not recognise the tender feelings for what they were. 

"How long will you be there?" Koujaku asked, desperate for a change in subject to distract himself. 

"No idea," Noiz replied, and he sounded so irritated about it that Koujaku had to laugh. "I'm doing my best, but there's only so much I can do on my side to ensure that I'm doing my job well. I didn't realise that my parents employed so many procrastinators."

Koujaku snorted. "Well, that's how working in a company is like, isn't it? Lots and lots of bureaucracy."

Noiz made an annoyed grunt. "It's stupid. There's nothing efficient about how this department is organised. I can think of at least five things to do that would make things run a lot more smoothly."

"Why not do something about those ideas, then?" Koujaku said. "You're the bosses' son, after all, so people have to at least try to respect you. Surely you can make use of that advantage."

There was a moment of silence as Noiz seemed to consider Koujaku's words. "...huh."

Koujaku grinned, amused. "Didn't think of that, hmm?"

Noiz muttered something under his breath, sounding disgruntled, and Koujaku laughed. "You need to learn how to communicate with people, brat," he said cheerfully. "You've spent far too long working on your own. If you want people to do things properly you need to tell them first; you can't just expect things to just run smoothly without any direction."

"Hmph. Whatever." There was the sound of a door opening, and a woman talking. Noiz said something back, sounding a bit far away, before he returned to the Coil. "I have to go. Duty calls."

Koujaku's heart skipped a beat, and he felt strangely irritated at the woman who had just called to Noiz. "Oh. Okay. Sure."

"I'll call you again," Noiz said hurriedly. "Not this late, since you're an old man and you need plenty of re–"

"Finish that sentence and I will block your number, I swear," Koujaku growled. 

"You like me too much to do that," Noiz retorted, and that was  _definitely_ a note of smugness Koujaku could hear in his voice. Then he spoke again, his voice much softer, "I won't let you worry about me again like I've done, all right? I'll be sure to call you as often as I can."

Koujaku frowned. "Oy, don't make it an obligation if you have work to do. I don't want you to get distracted from work."

"It won't be a distraction. This job is too easy," Noiz said, with a remarkable amount of confidence. "I want to stay in touch, while I'm away. I like hearing your voice, it makes things seem less lonely here. Is that okay?" 

...well. If Noiz put it that way... Koujaku was very glad that he was alone at home; it felt like his entire head and neck was on fire, from the force of his blushing. 

Noiz was really too cute sometimes.

"Uhm, yeah. That's okay."

Noiz laughed softly again. "That's good to hear. I'll talk to you tomorrow, old man. Goodbye."

"Bye." 

The call disconnected.

Koujaku pondered the call log for a brief moment, before saving the number under "Brat". 

The clock said it was a little past midnight. Koujaku was a habitual early riser; he knew that he would get up as soon as the sun started shining through the window blinds, and going back to sleep right now meant that he definitely would be a groggy mess when he woke up. 

But as he sank back into his bed, unable to stop the helpless, happy grin spreading across his face, he found that he didn't care.

**Author's Note:**

> **Why Munich?**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Largely because one of its major industries is information technology, and according to my internet research it's a sister city to Sapporo, which is also known for its IT sector, which I imagine is the reason why Noiz is fluent in Japanese, especially if his parents' company has bases in Japan. Not to mention the fact that it's known to be a major tourist destination and have an exceptionally high quality of life, and based on Noiz's summer side story, wherever they are staying it is apparently "close to Platinum Jail" in terms of being a very advanced city, and Munich seemed like it could eventually develop into one of those cities. 
> 
> * * *
> 
> **On Mujina (狢, lit. 'badger')**
> 
>  
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>  
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>  
> 
> Truthfully? I don't actually think the one in-game mention of "Mujina" is referring to a person ([click here to see my explanation why](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/18268463)) but because quite a number of fandom interprets Mujina as Ruff Rabbit's leader, I decided to turn Mujina into a character, for the sake of helping with the story progression. 
> 
> I imagine Mujina to be one of the co-founders of Ruff Rabbit, alongside Noiz. I based a lot of their personality on the unknown guy in Noiz's Episode 0 in the DMMD Bonus Drama CD, who "badgered" Noiz into forming a Rhyme group based on combining their ability to predict Usui. So they're very  _genki_ , cheerful and upbeat and a lot friendlier than Noiz, which works as a nice foil to Noiz's more introverted personality.
> 
> (yes, I'm using they/them pronouns, I have a reason for that)
> 
> Running with the badger theme, they're a true "night owl", a nocturnal type of person that is active at night and sleeps during the day. Their upbeat nature is partially a result of the copious amounts of sugary caffeine they ingest. Also, "mujina" in Japanese folklore are shape-shifting creatures, so Mujina is gender-neutral, and tends to drift from masculine to feminine in appearance depending on how they feel on a particular day as well as their own need to disguise themselves. 
> 
> Mujina is effectively the real leader of Ruff Rabbit, and does most of the organising and delegating, since their personality is a lot more suited to being one to manage the actual members, especially since the unknown guy mentioned beforehand in the Episode 0 was the one who "would bring in people" with similar interests. Noiz is more of a figurehead and their "ace" Rhymer/info-broker, and helps mostly with the technical side of Ruff Rabbit's activities. Between the two, Noiz (with his victory streak) is the more famous one, which is why the aesthetics of the team reflects Noiz's own tastes. This suits Mujina, because Mujina is primarily in the game for fun and profit. Mostly profit, really, since profit is their main motivation for everything in life. They have been doing very illegal information gathering for a long time, and would rather stay out of the spotlight and work behind the scenes, for safety's sake. 


End file.
